How your card is made with help from the princess of printing presses, a melting plastic and a skilled Yorkshireman called James. With video of your cards coming off the press...

Your card starts as an idea in my sketch book which I turn into a digital file for a 'die'. These are the engraved metal plates which press the design into pewter (for pewter compact mirrors), copper (the base for my enamels) or card (for your greetings card!).

Your greetings card die is engraved in a solid but soft-ish metal, magnesium. It then arrives on the table of John, a skilled printer in Bradford, West Yorkshire. John's print workshop is just down the road from my studio, which means I can be a real pest while he sets up and runs the first prints. Your card can go through several changes as we work together to get the best effects out of the foils, card and press.

The Rose & Swallow card on the print workshop table, laying out print and testing foil.

The design cut as a magnesium die, mounted in the printing press.

James is the man responsible for running John's traditional printing press. This is a Heidelberg Platen, the princess of printing machines. Invented in West Germany in the 1950s it's seen by many as the gold standard of traditional presses. I love designing for this whirring, gleaming gentle monster (with its looks straight out of the Ipcress File). And James's enthusiasm for what the press can do is infectious.

James's Original Heidelberg Platen printing press. I'm pretty much in love with this machine.

The Heidelberg's label, made in the former West Germany

James mounts your card's magnesium die in the press and aligns it with a ribbon of transfer foil. We choose a satin silver for the print, after initial running tests with a less elegant silver gloss. James runs more print tests with the foil to make sure that the pressure of the press, combined with the shape of the die, gives the effect I'm looking for.

James sets up the Heidelberg press. You can see the shiny magnesium die in the centre. Here James is loading a new foil ribbon beneath, which he'll attach to the end of the old ribbon (showing my Rose & Swallow card design) above.

Choosing between so much foil!

I make things extra difficult for James by using 'tints' in your card die. These are different textures etched into the metal - which show on your card as glittery areas or surface textures in the silver foil. Achieving a good finish in these areas needs James's specialist knowledge.

Choosing the tints (foil textures) for the Rose & Swallow greeting card. You can see my lo-fi method of paper, scissors and foil tint swatch cards!

An early trial print. You can see the foil tint in the bird and roses (you can also see areas of missing foil which James irons out for your card print!)

At first the tinted shapes aren't embossing as we'd hoped, so James hand-cuts the designs out of a special plastic film, Prago. (Actually he'd first jumped in his car to go for Prago supplies and had to persuade me that the supply shop wasn't an exciting place to visit too). He then mounts these plastic shapes to the reverse plate of the press, which hits your card on the other side to the die. The Prago melts into all the die's contours and textures, forming a 'counter die' to help press all the tricky bits.

James working on the Prago on the reverse side of the press. The magnesium plate is now hidden behind the ribbon of silver foil.

James's fine adjustments to achieve crisp lines in the final print

James cuts away the extra Prago by hand to achieve crisp lines in the final print. We then run more tests, get excited by the now beautiful foiling, and agree the print run for your card is ready to start. James runs the press and hand-inspects each card at the same time. It means he can stop the press the moment a card emerges less than perfect. Each card is printed in a batch of one hundred or so, and James sets up and checks the press each time.

Hot off the press, in James's hand....

Your cards are ready after they're foiled and checked by James and his Heidelberg, folded individually, first by machine then by hand, checked again, then carefully bagged with an envelope from another local manufacturer, The Yorkshire Envelope Company. I'm rather taken with the story of your envelope, but that's a post for the future. Enough to say that they're lovely enough to live up to a card with so much skill in its production. I'm hoping to work with John and James on a lot more projects to come…